Nor’easter Forces 1,500 Flight Cancellations

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — For the second time in as many weeks, airlines are cancelling large numbers of flights. First, it was superstorm Sandy. Now, a nor’easter.

By Wednesday morning, the approaching storm caused more than 1,500 flight cancellations for Wednesday and Thursday, according to FlightAware. So far, there are 1,199 flights canceled for Wednesday and an additional 313 canceled on Thursday.

The majority of those are at the three major New York City airports: Newark, LaGuardia, and John F. Kennedy. Newark has 246 cancellations on outbound flights Wednesday and LaGuardia and JFK have 127 and 94 cancellations respectively.

There are also over 500 flights cancelled from other U.S. airports to New York City.

As has become the norm for the airlines, many are waiving change and cancellation fees. As of Wednesday morning, United Airlines, Delta, US Airways, American Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest had all updated their flexible travel policies to include considerations for the expected storm.

Some airlines were just returning to normal operations after Sandy. The superstorm resulted in the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights.

Travelers are encouraged to take advantage of flexible travel policies and reschedule flights for a later date. Those who do so early will have more choices in terms of available seats on preferred flights.